A Canadian man has revealed how he diced with police during a daring pre-dawn skate across the frozen reflecting pool in front of the heavily patrolled Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Keegan Bursaw walks by the Capitol Reflecting Pool every day on his way to work at the Canadian Embassy. But last Friday, the six-acre water feature caught his eye. It was frozen.

Keegan BursawKeegan Bursaw skates across the reflecting pool in front of Capitol Hill.

The glint off the ice reminded Bursaw of his days spent gliding across the Rideau Canal when he was a child growing up in Ottawa. This was the first time the 25-year-old had ever seen the pristine waters at the eastern end of the National Mall turn to ice.

The temperature in Washington usually hovers above the freezing mark, but this January the mercury dropped below -5, freezing the large pool of water.

Bursaw desperately wanted to lace up his skates and glide across the newly frozen surface. He felt as though he was staring at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Bursaw’s father always told him, “If you have an opportunity to do something, and you don’t do it, you’re going to regret it forever.”

So he began to hatch a plan. He thought he’d have a better chance of going undetected if he skated solo, so he kept his idea secret from his friends.

Early Sunday morning Bursaw pulled on two pairs of long underwear and stepped out into the dark, freezing cold. He biked down to Capitol Hill and at arrived at the reflecting pool at about 6 a.m. He took a quick look around, and quickly pulled on his skates.

“My heart was racing. It felt very daring,” Bursaw said. “Like I was doing something wrong.”

He stepped out on to the frozen pool and took off across the ice as “smooth as glass.” Bursaw grabbed his hockey stick and sent a puck and shards of ice sailing across the frigid surface.

“I though I was being so sneaky,” he said. Bursaw thought no one would spot him in the dark.

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But after a few minutes, he started to notice the cop cars.

A few police officers drove around the pool without stopping. But Bursaw was more worried about a vehicle parked near the Capitol. The cops in that car started flashing their lights at Bursaw — about every five minutes.

Keegan BursawKeegan Bursaw snaps a photo of the reflecting pool in front of Capitol Hill.

He ducked behind one of the statues at the side of the pool, so the police couldn’t see him. Adrenaline pumping, he decided he would keep skating until he was told to stop. He managed to get in about 30 minutes of ice time.

As the the sun started to rise, a cop car drove down one of the side roads parallel to the pond and stopped near Bursaw.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to get off the ice now,” Bursaw heard over the loud speaker. The cops didn’t want anyone else to get the same idea, he said.

“I’d expected him to get out and come over and get mad at me,” he said. “I though I was going to get arrested. But it didn’t happen.”

He decided to skate one more lap. When he sat down to take off his skates off, the cop car drove away.

As Bursaw biked away from the Capitol, he passed the police who were flashing their lights at him. The officers were outside their car now, drinking coffee.

“I gave them a friendly nod, and they laughed and waved back,” Bursaw said. “And I went on my way.”

Since sharing his early morning skate with friends and on social media, more people have expressed their desire to glide across the Capitol Reflecting Pool.

“Looks like I’m trying this,” a Reddit user said, after Bursaw posted a photo from his skate online. “Maybe we will meet up and be pre-dawn hockey ninja buddies.”

But others may not get the same chance. The weather was perfect for skating. The cops left him alone. Everything lined up for him Sunday morning.

WASHINGTON — A man who set himself on fire on the National Mall in the U.S. capital has died of his injuries, which were so severe that authorities will have to use DNA and dental records to identify him, District of Columbia police said Saturday.

The man died Friday night at a Washington hospital where he had been airlifted, Officer Araz Alali, a police spokesman, said.

The man poured a can of gasoline on himself in the centre portion of the National Mall Friday afternoon. He then set himself on fire, with passing joggers taking off their shirts to help douse the flames. Police had said he was conscious and breathing at the scene, but he was airlifted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

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Lt. Pamela Smith of the U.S. Park Police said she was unaware whether he carried signs or had articulated a cause. One witness, Katy Scheflen, said that she saw a tripod set up near the man but that she did not hear him say anything intelligible before he set himself on fire. It was unclear whether the man was filming the incident.

The immolation occurred in a city with jangled nerves following a Sept. 16 mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard and high-speed car chase outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. The chase ended with a woman being shot dead by police with a young child in the car.

The Associated Press

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]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/man-who-set-himself-on-fire-outside-u-s-capital-dies-police-need-dna-to-identify-him/feed2stdFireMan douses himself in gasoline, sets himself on fire on the National Mall in Washingtonhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/man-douses-himself-in-gasoline-and-sets-himself-on-fire-on-the-national-mall-in-washington
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/man-douses-himself-in-gasoline-and-sets-himself-on-fire-on-the-national-mall-in-washington#commentsFri, 04 Oct 2013 22:20:42 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=373045

A man set himself on fire on the National Mall in the nation’s capital as passers-by rushed over to help douse the flames, officials and witnesses said Friday afternoon.

The reason for the self-immolation was not immediately clear and the man’s identity was not disclosed. But it occurred in public view, on a central national gathering place, in a city still rattled by a mass shooting last month and a high-speed car chase outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday that ended with a woman being shot dead by police.

The man on the Mall suffered life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to the hospital, said District of Columbia fire department spokesman Tim Wilson.

He was standing by himself in the center portion of the Mall when he emptied the contents of a red gasoline can on himself and set himself on fire moments later, said Katy Scheflen, who witnessed it as she walked across the area. Police say they responded around 4:20 p.m. Friday.

Scheflen said passing joggers took off their shirts in an effort to help douse the flames, and the man was clearly alive as the fire spread. A police department spokesman said he was conscious and breathing at the scene. MedStar Washington Hospital Center tweeted that the man was taken there but had no condition update.

“There was not a lot people could do because it was a gasoline fire,” Scheflen said.